Player of the Year

Borgata Winter Open Loads Up the Leader Board

The only players to crack the top 10 on the Card Player 2009 Player of the Year (POY) leader board during the last two weeks came from the final table of the Borgata Winter Open $3,000 no-limit hold'em championship. The champion, Steve Weinstein, captured 1,800 POY points and won $658,405 in prize money. He topped a large field of 1,017 players in this event, which guaranteed a prize pool of $2 million, but garnered enough participants to create a $3,015,000 prize pool. Weinstein now sits in sixth place in the standings.

Also breaking into the top 10 from this event was runner-up Todd Terry. He took home $434,767 in prize money and racked up 1,500 points. He is now tied for 10th place with Team PokerStars Pro Alexandre Gomes. The other thousand-point winner at the Borgata was Robert Merulla, whose 1,200 points put him in 17th place in the standings.

Further Afield - LAPC Prelims Make Their Mark

Through 20 preliminary events at the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino, the biggest winner so far is Nikmil Gera, who outlasted a field of 404 players who made 342 rebuys in event No. 17. Gera was awarded $195,373 and 960 points for the win, which puts him in an eight-way tie for 23rd place. Eugene Tito won the very first preliminary event, a $300 no-limit hold'em tournament, for $124,985 and 600 points. The only double winner thus far is seven-card stud specialist Robert Gollick, who won both the $300 and $500 seven-card stud preliminary events to collect $28,795 in prize money and tally 312 points. Gollick continued an impressive string of stud performances at Commerce Casino with the two wins, as he also finished in second place in the $1,000 seven-card stud event at the 2008 LAPC.

At press time, the major events are yet to be played; a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha rebuy event, a $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, a $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold'em event, and the $10,000 World Poker Tour no-limit hold'em championship event are on the schedule, so look for them to have a major impact in the coming weeks on the POY race. Be sure to check out all of the results of these big events on CardPlayer.com.

Upcoming POY Events: Early April Calm Before the Storm

Late March and early April represent a small slowdown in tournament activity before things heat up again in late April. However, a lot of POY points will be available to players in the WSOP Circuit event at Harrah's Rincon, at the Venetian's Deep-Stack Extravaganza II, and in the main event of the Foxwoods Poker Classic on the World Poker Tour. Here are the dates of those tournaments:

WSOP Circuit, Harrah's Rincon, $5,000 championship event - March 30-April 1
WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic $10,000 championship event - April 3-8
Deep-Stack Extravaganza II, Venetian - Begins April 1

Follow the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship on CardPlayer.com

It's time for poker's very own version of "March Madness" again, March 6-8 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship gives mainstream America a small glimpse into the minds of 64 of the game's best players, and this year, the event will be broadcast over six nights on NBC, beginning April 12.

For those fans who want to fill out their brackets and follow the action before the Championship hits the airwaves, Card Player will provide full updates, photos, and video interviews live from the tournament floor, starting March 6 at CardPlayer.com.

This event has historically been an invitation-only contest, but this year, a number of seats will be won by online and casino qualifiers. Other players who receive automatic bids are the last three World Series of Poker main-event champions - Peter Eastgate, Jerry Yang, and Jamie Gold - the WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren, and even our very own Card Player 2008 Player of the Year John Phan.

A full list of confirmed participants is still being prepared, but past champions such as Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, and Paul Wasicka are expected to attend. Last year's champion, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, will undoubtedly try for his fourth second-place-or-better finish in five years. Joining him will be perpetual bridesmaid Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, and Huck Seed.
All invited players and satellite winners will put up the $20,000 buy-in for a shot at the first-place prize of $500,000. The runner-up will earn $250,000, and the two losing semifinalists each will take home $125,000.

Look Out: Robert McLaughlin

Making a final table of a major poker tournament comes with a fair amount of glory, but most of the accolades go to the tournament champion. This may be why you might not know anything about Robert McLaughlin just yet. He has made 15 final tables during his career and won $919,752 since his first cash in 2007.

McLaughlin has cashed three times in World Poker Tour events, and four times at the World Series of Poker. He has come close to capturing his first major title twice in the past few months, with a fourth-place finish in the WSOP Circuit $5,000 championship event at Harrah's Atlantic City in December 2008, and most recently with a fourth-place finish in the Borgata Winter Open $3,000 no-limit hold'em championship.

He won $205,942 and 900 Card Player 2009 Player of the Year points for his final-table appearance in the championship event at Borgata, and added another 138 points at the Winter Open when he finished in seventh place in a $2,000 no-limit hold'em preliminary event. This puts McLaughlin in 21st place on the current leader board with 1,038 points.

One big score could take McLaughlin to the top, and he has proven that he is capable of taking down a tournament. He has won three tournaments during his short career, including the Borgata $250,000-guaranteed event in May of 2007. This was the first cash of his career, and also his largest. He topped a field of 757 players in the $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em event to bank $210,976 in prize money. Keep an eye on how McLaughlin is doing this spring, to see if he can keep his current hot streak going and climb the POY leader board.